It's Officially Official.

After answering an ad in the hot new flyfishing rag "Lifestyles of the Stumbly Dirtbags", we gots us a new job. Following an interview in pidgin Swahili and a grueling, 7-minute training session, we are the new, official Shop-Floor-Sweeper, Moose-Nose-Wiper, Casher-of-Forged-Checks, and Junior-Dirtbag-in-Training over at BWTF.

How will this affect our relationship, you might ask?

We're still gonna post over here, and we're still gonna get our food and music on. This one hasn't run its course yet.

But a change of pace is always an OK thing, and we're pretty sure that things are gonna work out just fine.

Sushi Party box scores.

Apparently, we were mistaken in our assumption that this year's Sushi Party™ was the 10th annual celebration of the Gonger's birfday...we were told in no uncertain terms by several people that were certainly and reliably stoned to the gills that this was, in fact, only the 9th time this celebration had occurred. Our bad.

At any rate, Tout le Juneau came out for the throwdown, and we did our best to get a little strange and push out the accepted boundaries of what goes in sushi. The surprise hit of the year (to everybody else but us) was bacon, followed closely by pineapple, kimchi, and mango.

C'mon, people. Bacon goes with everything.

Images from an evening of gourmet chaos.

When starting out a hectic, beer- and sake-filled evening of rolling sushi, it is best to remember just what the hell you are doing in the first place. Several of these got scrapped, but the Mermaid is one of the best combinations we have ever come up with.


A half-Chinese guy and a Scandinavian mutt, about to throw down some sushi love.


The aforementioned Mermaid, with the addition of avocado.


Spider roll fodder, pre-tempura.


Squid, mixed with squid, stuffed in squid...the Ika-Ika.


In the thick of things.


The first dessert that worked - banana in coconut rice, wrapped in soypaper, topped with caremelized sugar. How could it NOT be good?


Aftermath.





We got some good stuff out of this year's session, and there are some new ideas sloshin' around in the braincase for next year's throwdown...

But you're gonna hafta wait until then to know what they are.

RoadTrip '10 v2.0

Once again, we be off.

This time 'round, first stop is beautiful downtown Puyallup, WA, for the Sportsman's Show at the fairgrounds - 5 days of bugling elk, barking dogs, and chaw-stained NASCAR-lookin' walleye fishing shirts. Booth #558 will be home for the duration, so stop by and say hi if you are in the general vicinity.

Plans of a coastal nature have been hatched with Ratbone, with the nascent rumblings of a midnight drive followed by much beer consumption, snap casting, and a smattering of rowing.

Gig Harbor WA is next on the itinerary, for a 2-night stand at the Tides Tavern. Check out the poster, peeps.


Off to Stumptown for SupaBowl weekend, with a possible Diggler - HoJo sighting/rendezvous in the mix. Fishing, naturally, is de rigeur, and overtures of the piscine sort have been made to both Bacon and Hickman...ball is in your court, fellas.

Killer K and J-Po, both Stumptown clowns formerly of Juneau, are on the radar as well. Killer K is gettin' his escuela on, so we figure a tidy break with a half-day piscine biathlon is in order... Not sure what the PoPo is up to, but we're pretty sure we'll get that sorted over beers one night. More "Red Gold" showing is on the plate, but the time and place is YTBD.

Yard' (not 'yard) gave us a whistle with the intent on fishing down OR way...you know it, fella. Give us a bell on the mobby, mang.

...And after the interlude, it's back to work in the salt mines of the Portland sportsman's show. 5 more days of RealTree, UglyStik, Bob's best catfish bloodbait, and big hair.

See you in a few weeks, kids.

Refugia

RoadTrip '10 v1.0/1.1 is now over, and with a little luck, we can get our laundry done in time for v2.0, which commences in 114:21:39.

We hung around in the Centennial State for a few days after the ISE show and were fortunate enough to hook up with some like-minded citizens of the fin, folks that didn't mind showing a few of their locals to a fella that doesn't normally see flowing water in the winter. The idea of catching trout in January is something we can get behind, even if it does involve extended air travel.

Fortified by a bitchin' chicken-fried steak from the Breakfast Queen, we drug our sea-level-acclimatized carcass across what seemed to be a minor Himalayan pass on the way to a funky little flow that our man Slave had designated as the target du jour. It took us awhile to get into the feel of things, 'cause sz26 flies aren't really part of our vocabulary, but we got into the groove just in time to say hi to a new friend from the mountains.

The Killer Fuzzball, makin' sure we get it done proper.


Day 2 was spent brownlining in the industrial district, dodging various unidentified floating objects and trying not to scrape the flesh of any body parts we might need in the future against the rebar-and-asphalt-infested riprap. Throwing flies that looked as if they were wiped off of something rather than hatched, we stumbled around under the various bridges and graffiti-covered revetments that constitute the riparian habitat of our quarry. Wooly was the first to break the seal, hookin' up with a nice specimen in the Tetanus Hole. We followed suit soon after, landing our first intentional flyrod carp, and Slave tightened up the formation by landing a Rocky Mountain Bone of his own. A few fishless holes later, and the siren song of beer and barbecue forced us into retirement.

Wooly, payin' arm-service to our carp.


But that was then and this is now, as they say. A few more loads of laundry, a quick repacking session, then it's off to the PNW for a few shows. As is the standard, we will be totin' a few twigs along for the ride. Word around the campfire is that Ratbone has a new raft he needs to test out and a shoulder in need of rehab, so we're planning on holdin' down pointy-end duties on an as-yet unnamed river in WA...and in a weird, masochistic way, we're sorta lookin' forward to getting duct-taped into a mummy bag and thrown in the back of Bacon's truck again for another ride to the fabled flows of Beatdown Territory.

Here today, WA / OR in a few days. RoadTrip '10 v2.0, kids.


It's what keeps winter interesting.

Another one in the Books

Random Thoughts and Impressions from 2009, minus about 31,893 words.































































Tramp..This picture always makes us laugh.



This one always makes us cry.




2009.

We wouldn't trade it, but we don't really want it back, neither.

See you next year.

Happy Christmahaunakwanzaakah, again.

The Yule Season crept up on us this year, only to leap out of the bushes a few days ago to shout "Surprise!" at our startled countenance.

Happy Holidays? In 2 days? Really? C'mon, man...thanksgiving was like, what...a week ago?

Sure enough, it is Christmahaunakwanzaakah again, and like most arbitrary days of celebration based on highly improbable acts (see also: Easter) and only recently co-opted and corrupted by commercial interests and the materialist mentality, we could care less.

Truth be told, we don't cotton much to the gift gettin' n givin' process- if we need it, we go get it, and if we just "want" it, odds are that it is a pretty specific (or obscure) item. Shopping for others is another layer of stress altogether, but we bottled up our inner grinch long enough to get some nice presents for the Wife, if only so she sticks around for another year.

The one good thing about the holiday season is the gatherings, and if some folks need it as an excuse to loosen up a little, neck back some 'nog, and give the old lady a christmas goose, then we're okay with that.

As it turns out, we don't need too many excuses to celebrate life, family, and friends.







If you just have to free your inner elf, send all your offerings and tidings of joy to 58°19'59"N 134°29'49"W ...Ho ho ho, dammit.

Take II

More from the C:/user/photos/fall file.

December is the annual and traditional "mental vacation" month here at the Neil Creek Estate. Not much goes on in the darkest month, and not much is asked of us, so we generally just shuffle around the mansion in our underwear, clutching a cup of coffee and absently rubbing our stubble-covered phiz...by the way, that last word? It doesn't mean what you think it means.

We're sure there are folks that view us as a lazy, shiftless, no-good-for-nothin' because we get up at the crack of 9:30, lounge around all day on various couches, then drink beer all evening as if we have accomplished something worthwhile.

Our reply to those folks is, "Well, someone has to do it."

So far, the vacation has been going swimmingly. We come out of it every now an then to read emails, make ramen, and bathe, but other than that, we're pretty content with the way things have been progressing.

2010 is shaping up to be a busy one. With dates in DEN, SFO, SEA, PDX, OAK, LGB, and KOA, the Neil Creek RoadShow has a full dance card for the rest of the winter. Appropriate plans will be made withe the appropriate folks for rendez-vous during the peregrinations, but right now we're too busy relaxing to think about all of that.

Only 25 more days of staycation...coffee, anyone?